Hitler in British Comics

Hi everyone!

I'm researching the use of Hitler in British Comics for a Crikey! article.

I'd like to hear from you all about any such appearances that you remember from any period/style of British Comics, whether it's 'Addie and Hermy' from The Dandy, 'Day of the Eagle' in Battle, Morrison and Yeowell's 'The New Adventures of Hitler', or others I've yet to encounter!

Any memories, suggestions, references, URLs etc etc will be gratefully received. Feel free to email me personally (andrew.edwards@hotmail.co.uk) or via the Forum if you prefer.

Thanks guys!
Andrew

Interesting. We already have one piece on Hitler in the works, coincidentally enough (more specifically, the aforementioned 'The New Adventures of Hitler'), so maybe we'll have a Hitler themed issue...

Is this specifically Hitler or the Nazis in general?

Hi Tony,

Good to hear from you. Glenn suggested I expand on a blog post on 'Hitler and Comics' I wrote a while back -

http://andrew-madaboutcomics.blogspot.com/2009/12/its-interesting-to-come-across-old.html

- as an article for Crikey. I'm only assuming that the best focus would be Hitler specifically. I can leave out Morrison/Yeowell's 'New Adventures' to avoid overlap with your other contributor, if you like. I'm also open to widening it to Nazis in general too.

Best wishes
Andrew

Andrew Edwards wrote:Hi Tony,

Good to hear from you. Glenn suggested I expand on a blog post on 'Hitler and Comics' I wrote a while back -

http://andrew-madaboutcomics.blogspot.com/2009/12/its-interesting-to-come-across-old.html

- as an article for Crikey. I'm only assuming that the best focus would be Hitler specifically. I can leave out Morrison/Yeowell's 'New Adventures' to avoid overlap with your other contributor, if you like. I'm also open to widening it to Nazis in general too.

Best wishes
Andrew

I think there's certainly scope for expansion Andrew-after all, the Nazis and their allies have been the principal villains in many British comics for the last 70 years, so there's no lack of material! The Beano had a dig at Mussolini too, as i recall...

Before the war but when it was clear things were going that way there was a lot of stories in which the heroes foiled the warlike plans of "a central european country" or "a certain dictator" etc etc. One of which is the excellent "Captain Justice on Secret Service" Boys' Friend library i read recently. The country is never named but the various characters that come from the country all have German-sounding names, also it seems to have a very military-heavy/secret police infested society and has built an "aerial torpedo launcher" to bombard Britain with.

Anyone remember Baron Von Reichs-Pudding?

tony ingram wrote:Anyone remember Baron Von  Reichs-Pudding?

Since nobody responded in four years after you posted that . . . I'm guessing "No"?   

MajorHoy wrote:

tony ingram wrote:Anyone remember Baron Von  Reichs-Pudding?

Since nobody responded in four years after you posted that . . . I'm guessing "No"?   

The Baron has my sympathy. It can be a terrible thing, to have one's acts of villainy utterly forgotten. It makes you wonder why you bothered.

So who was he?

Lucy McGough wrote:So who was he?

Baron von Reichs Pudding was a World War I German flying ace whose misdaventures were chronicled in DC Thomson's humour title [i]Sparky[/i in the 1970s.

http://britishcomics.wikia.com/wiki/Baron_von_Reichs-Pudding

Ah. Okay.

Blimey - has it been four years since I wrote that piece? Where did that go? :-O

Andrew Edwards wrote:Blimey - has it been four years since I wrote that piece? Where did that go? :-O

It's frightening, isn't it? But where did you go, Andrew? Long time no see.   

Ahh, I know... I'm still about, but have spent the last four years writing a book on Swamp Thing and my PhD on Alan Moore. Both are nearing the end...

Andrew Edwards wrote:Ahh, I know... I'm still about, but have spent the last four years writing a book on Swamp Thing and my PhD on Alan Moore. Both are nearing the end...

Alan Moore is nearing the end?   

Oh, cwipes!

Nope, I'm sure that Alan Moore will outlive us all!

Andrew Edwards wrote:Nope, I'm sure that Alan Moore will outlive us all!

Of course he will. He has dark forces on his side. Glycon will protect his servant.

Andrew Edwards wrote: my PhD on Alan Moore. Both are nearing the end...

A PhD on Alan Moore sounds so cool. Good luck! Plan to publish it?

I'd like to, eventually. No plans as yet, but I will be looking into it once I finish it :-)

What's the title?

It's Intertextuality in the works of Alan Moore. I started out thinking about the way he uses elements from a wide range of texts in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and then I set out to see how and why he drew influences from other texts all through his career, from his earliest UK work onwards. Beyond this, it's also focused on how readers navigate their way through reading the many works he's written.

Y'know, it's amazing how active an old thread that only had six posts has become in the past +/- eighteen hours or so . . .

  

That's true :-)

Andrew Edwards wrote:It's Intertextuality in the works of Alan Moore. I started out thinking about the way he uses elements from a wide range of texts in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and then I set out to see how and why he drew influences from other texts all through his career, from his earliest UK work onwards. Beyond this, it's also focused on how readers navigate their way through reading the many works he's written.

I would very much like to read that. As some may have noticed, I'm a bit of a Moore fan.

MajorHoy wrote:Y'know, it's amazing how active an old thread that only had six posts has become in the past +/- eighteen hours or so . . .

  

It's you and your habit of resurrecting old discussions! It always happens!

I'd like to read Andrew's PhD thesis too.

Andrew Edwards wrote:I'd like to, eventually. No plans as yet, but I will be looking into it once I finish it :-)

I've read that some universities publish them without the author's permission. Might want to check into that, too.
If you do publish it, let us know. I will buy a copy. Sounds fascinating.

Andrew Edwards wrote:It's Intertextuality in the works of Alan Moore. I started out thinking about the way he uses elements from a wide range of texts in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and then I set out to see how and why he drew influences from other texts all through his career, from his earliest UK work onwards. Beyond this, it's also focused on how readers navigate their way through reading the many works he's written.

Ok, now ever more fascinating. Hurry up, will you?

Thanks guys - will let you know when it's done!   

Thankfully I retain the intellectual property rights too :-)

Good I'll let Tony read my copy after me.

Did you folks ever get stories like Hitler's brain being saved and placed in the head of a gorilla?

I can't recall ever reading that one, but Tony's read more than me.

Well, no. But we did have Hitler being kidnapped by mutant bounty hunters from the future.

Oh, and we had this...

http://britishcomics.wikia.com/wiki/I_Was_Adolf's_Double

tony ingram wrote:Well, no. But we did have Hitler being kidnapped by mutant bounty hunters from the future.

(a) I still haven't read that one.
(b) Wulf Sternhammer is not a mutant.

Lucy McGough wrote:

tony ingram wrote:Well, no. But we did have Hitler being kidnapped by mutant bounty hunters from the future.

(a) I still haven't read that one.
(b) Wulf Sternhammer is not a mutant.

Johnny and Wulf were not the only Strontium Dogs involved in The Schicklgruber Grab.

See (a)

tony ingram wrote:Johnny and Wulf were not the only Strontium Dogs involved in The Schicklgruber Grab.

And for some reason, I always thought there was an "N" in there.

Ah, we all know Americans can't spell   

Only joking!

MajorHoy wrote:

tony ingram wrote:Johnny and Wulf were not the only Strontium Dogs involved in The Schicklgruber Grab.

And for some reason, I always thought there was an "N" in there.

There are two 'n's in 'Johnny'...

What about Joni Mitchell?